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PARKVILLE, Mo. — Park University’s women’s beach volleyball team opened play today in the NAIA Women’s Beach Volleyball National Invitational Tournament in Panama City Beach, Fla. It’s the second straight trip to the national tournament for the Pirates. Park is the only school in the tournament not within a few hundred miles of an ocean – all other teams are based in California, Florida, Oregon and Arizona, and Park is the only school in the country to have qualified all three of its volleyball teams (men’s indoor, women’s indoor and women’s beach volleyball) in the NAIA national tournaments the past two years.

For the uninitiated, in beach volleyball, five two-person teams compete against their respective counterpart (No. 1 vs. No. 1, No. 2 vs. No. 2, etc.) simultaneously. Each match is a best-of-three with the first two sets to 21 and the third set (if needed) to 15 (all sets must be won by two points). The school that is victorious in the majority of the matches against their opponent wins.

No. 5 Park University played two pool play matches today in Pool A against No. 1 Westcliff University (Calif.) and No. 4 Ottawa University (Ariz.).

WESTCLIFF 3, PARK 2

In Park’s first match today against Westcliff, the Pirates lost, 3-2. It was Park’s first loss to an NAIA team this season as their only other loss came at the hands of the University of Nebraska in Park’s second match of the season.

• No. 1 — Westcliff defeated Park (Giovanna Bello and Debora Bernardi), 2-0 (22-20, 21-15)
• No. 2 — Park (Melissa Knaut and Carla Pons Sales) defeated Westcliff, 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-7)
• No. 3 — Westcliff defeated Park (Jullia Alvarez and Szonja Stollar), 2-0 (21-16, 21-14)
• No. 4 — Park (Maria Ramos and Patricia Ubeda) defeated Westcliff, 2-0 (22-20, 21-16)
• No. 5 — Westcliff defeated Park (Mafalda Bras and Laura Danezzi), 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 15-11)

PARK 3, OTTAWA (ARIZ.) 2

In Park’s second pool play match of the day against Ottawa, every match went the distance, with the Pirates coming out on top, 3-2. The victory hinged on the play of the No. 4s as Park came out on top in a match that went extra play in each set.

• No. 1 — Ottawa defeated Park (Bello/Bernardi), 2-1 (21-15, 18-21, 15-9)
• No. 2 — Park (Alvarez/Stollar) defeated Ottawa, 2-1 (16-21, 21-15, 15-5)
• No. 3 — Park (Knaut/Pons Sales) defeated Ottawa, 2-1 (16-21, 21-15, 15-5)
• No. 4 — Park (Ramos/Ubeda) defeated Ottawa, 2-1 (25-23, 20-22, 17-15)
• No. 5 — Ottawa defeated Park (Bras/Danezzi), 2-1 (21-16, 8-21, 15-13)

Park, which finished second in Pool A, is now 17-2 on the season. Today’s pool play matches determined placement in the single-elimination bracket portion of the tournament, which begins tomorrow (Friday, April 21) with the first round:

• 10 a.m. — No. 3 Vanguard University (Calif., 18-5) vs. No. 4 Ottawa University (Ariz., 16-10)
• Noon — No. 5 Park University (17-2) vs. No. 6 Webber International University (Fla., 17-4)

The semifinals will also be played on Friday:

• 2 p.m. — No. 1 Westcliff University (Calif., 19-3) vs. the winner of the 10 a.m. match
• 4 p.m. — No. 2 Corban University (Ore., 20-5) vs. the winner of the noon match

The semifinal winners will meet in the championship match on Saturday (April 22) at noon.

Park’s pairs records on the season:

• Bello / Bernardi, 12-4
• Alvarez / Stollar, 14-5
• Knaut / Pons Sales, 16-3
• Ramos / Ubeda, 15-4
• Bras / Danezzi, 14-4

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